Prae and Gnasci
by CeruleanLover
Summary: To be pregnant and to be born. Follow our favorite genderbent couple during the best-worst 9 months of a couple's life. Please enjoy and leave me some reviews, will ya? Shoutout to MistEssence!


**Hey Penguins! How are my favorite people doing? I'm back with another genderbent story but this time it's going to be about our favorite couple braving pregnancy and childbirth (yikes!) VERY IMPORTANT: I DID NOT STEAL THE TITLE FROM A HARRY POTTER FANFIC. I GOT THE INSPIRATION FROM THE LATIN ROOTS OF PREGNANCY AND I FIGURED RAVEN/DRAVEN'S LANGUAGE WOULD BE SOMETHING SIMILAR TO LATIN. I had to put it in all caps to get you guys' attention and I'm pretty sure you're gonna look up the meaning of prae and gnasci so I did too just to see what would pop up. So no I did not steal the idea. Furthermore t's gonna be in Daniel's (Draven)/General pov. I hope you guys enjoy and as always: read, leave a review, follow me and fave this story! Thank you so much! -CeruleanLover**

* * *

 **I would like to take the time out to say a BIG fucking thank you to my beta reader, the awesome, MistEssence! She helped me edit this story through a family loss and that is just so significant to me. I truly appreciate all the effort and time she put into aiding a stranger despite such a difficult time in this thing we call life. She's very sweet and I would love it if you guys could send her some love (I'm not sure how though. That's up to you!) Thank you so, so much MistEssence! You're a star! :)**

* * *

 _First Trimester_

No one really knew how things would work; if they were compatible or if she could even carry to full-term. After all their genetic structures were unique and could pose a problem for most things, certainly reproduction. So he worried. The child could possibly born with birth defects due to the breed mixing or could even absorb Sakutia from its mother. Perhaps it could even face challenges with _his_ half of the family tree. Daniel knew that Reese loved children and that she would be devastated if he couldn't give them to her or vice versa. But she'd grabbed him by the hands, eyes twinkling, telling him not to fear lest he pull another 'wicked scary'.

Later when she handed him a box dubbed "First Response" and the little white stick stared back at him with a pink plus sign, the bathroom mirror shattered into pieces and her laughter followed.

Then came the symptoms. The damnable first trimester symptoms.

Things were normal for another week and a half before the vomiting began. Projectile vomit. More than once he had to scrape puke off the walls while simultaneously directing his bawling wife into the bathtub and running to wash her soiled clothes. They had both been concerned at the seemingly excessive and unusual morning sickness but had attributed it to her anatomy. In the same instance the mood swings had come- albeit with a vengeance. Reese's basic nature had taken the seemingly small side effect and magnified it several extremes; extreme anger, extreme sorrow and extreme libido. Suffice to say that she was either chewing him out or climbing in his lap.

Then he had had to tough out the cravings phase. Many a times Daniel found himself in Walmart at two o'clock in the morning looking for potato chips and buttercream frosting or butter cookies and potato salad and then scratching his head at her aversion to soy milk and tofu burgers. The absolute most cringe-worthy craving in his opinion had been when she'd sent him to buy a Snicker bar and, upon receiving it, dipped it into a ranch cup.

Of course since Reese was pregnant she had put on some weight... fourteen pounds to be exact. She wasn't exactly pleased but accepted the fact that she was carrying another life and would therefore gain weight.

But the last straw had been her jeans; her favorite ones- either Cavalli or Balmain. He couldn't remember. They had been preparing for a date night at her favorite café when the damn button wouldn't close over her small, barely present bump.

All _Hell_ broke loose.

Frustrated grunts in front of the vanity mirror quickly turned to hot and angry tears; her makeup began to run which made her more upset and soon she was reduced to a blubbering, "hiccupping" mess. Daniel rushed in their bedroom half dressed and concerned, worried that she'd gotten hurt, and pulled her closer.

He observed her, turning her this way and that, lifting her clothes to check for any injuries underneath. "Reese. Honey. Are you alright? Are you harmed?"

She sprang at him, bawling into his bare chest. "I... can't fit my... favorite jeans anymore. I-I'm getting too fat and I feel like a beached whale. Hck."

He sighed in relief, scooping her up and running his fingers in her hair the way she liked, crooning, "You're supposed to put on weight. You're carrying another life inside of you and it's only fourteen pounds."

"That's easy for you to say. And this isn't normal because I should only be gaining like 6 pounds," she sniffled. " _You_ can still fit into your clothes and _you_ aren't pregnant."

"I wouldn't care if you were three hundred pounds, Reese. I will always love you no matter what you look like and the fact that you are swelling with our child- that's what's attractive to me. I appreciate your sacrifices."

She pulled back, wiping her face and pouting petulantly. "I love you too and I love it when you get sentimental. Hmmmm... Oh, I want some cheese nachos and pistachio ice cream."

Sure, she was a mess, but she was _his_ mess; the love he had for his wife and his child was more than enough payment for his struggles... and at least he didn't have to be pregnant. He shivered at the thought.

* * *

 _Second Trimester_

Sex. Lots of it. He didn't mean to be so blunt but her drive was back and her emotions were pretty much in check so she had taken to using him more often than not. Plenty of times he'd woken up with her lips attached to his neck and her dress bunched about her hips. Mentally, he began to prepare himself for the second bout of insomnia he was going to receive but the reward of hot passionate sex with his riled up significant other was the retribution.

Then the "quickening" began, those soft little kicks that had made her jump the first time it happened. She nearly rolled off of the couch where they had been cuddling, thinking that something was wrong with the baby so they waited quietly for another movement in her womb. She squeaked again, grabbing his hand and placing it over her lower left side where it seemed to sense his presence. At first there was nothing and then he felt something. Something little. He couldn't describe the feeling as little kicks softly drummed against his palm. She had smiled at him then and he finally saw the glow that everyone talked about. She was gleaming in a different way, like there was a luster in her skin. And her eyes- God were they bright and shining with something he just couldn't put his finger on. She looked softer somehow and it'd made him infinitesimally and inexplicably happy.

The twenty-week mark hit and she began to lay on her side and carry herself with a certain carefulness that seemed to borderline on instinctual and impulsive. It had been without question that staying in the Tower during missions were an eventuality, although she hadn't been necessarily happy about it. It was totally boring with no one to talk to besides Silkie and larvae aren't exactly the best with communication skills. Or any skills, really.

Besides sudden hair growth she had began to pick up weight steadily, having gained a little more than the common amount in healthy pregnancies that had left their ob-gyn slightly concerned.

Nothing could have prepared the rest of the Titans for the next part. It was a fair eventuality that staying at the Tower during missions would be safer for both her and the baby, although she wasn't necessarily happy about it. But even when they were around her they began noticing small things; the first was that she would disappear alone for hours. She gave no inclination as to when she would be leaving or when she would return or even what she was doing. At any given time in the day, every day without fail, she would go and take care of whatever her secretive business was, leaving her team puzzled and curious. Then she began to develop an aversion to loud noises and even too many people in one room. Whenever the others came around except for her husband she grew very agitated, once even snarling and baring her teeth at Starfire when he had come too close.

Daniel, knowing her, had only been tipped off when linen started to come up missing; sheets, towels, blankets and even his favorite sweater were victims of the thievery. No one could understand why bedspreads and duvets were the only things that were being taken considering they had several sixty inch plasma televisions and too many iPads to count. They could only rationally chalk it up to misplacement.

Then he found it. Under their bed. He had been looking for a lost book and happened to poke his hand underneath the bed which had a six-inch gap between the frame and the floor. Instead of a hardback, Daniel had found himself grasping something downy and he had gotten down on his hands and knees, placing his face on the floor to see what it was. Somehow all of the missing objects had been crammed in a large bundle in the middle of the space, carefully arranged in a tight birds' nest-like shape. He had looked at it for quite some time, totally bemused at both its presence and its purpose.

"What are you doing?" He jumped as a voice rang out behind him and looked up to see Reese standing there with her arms crossed, defensive scowl on her face.

"What the hell _is_ this?" He asked poking the pile of laundry curiously. She winced and shifted from foot to foot, looking uncomfortable.

"I was..." She muttered, the last part trailing off incoherently as she played with her ponytail.

He was still under the bed staring at it. "I didn't catch that last part."

"I said I- it's called nesting."

"What is that?"

She sighed exasperatedly, "Nesting is when a female, human or not, prepares for the arrival of a baby. Like, for humans, it's buying necessities. You know, like clothes, a crib, diapers and all that. For mammals, it's when they find somewhere safe and quiet when they um... they give birth."

"Huh," he grunted offhandedly, unable to resist the urge to explore the meticulously created pile. "Can you actually fit in it?"

She slapped his hands away.

" _Yes._ My instincts feel better when I make one- mostly the birds, cats and dogs. Now stop touching it; it's stressful for me."

He gave a small, sheepish smile. "Sorry- it's just that the craftsmanship is phenomenal. Will a foot rub make you forgive me?"

"Maybe."

He shifted to kneel and patted the bed in front of him, motioning for her to sit down. She began purring as he expertly manipulated her swollen feet. "You're forgiven."

* * *

"Hmmm... I can't decide which ones." Reese perused the two pairs of lounge pants on the hangers he held up. "What do you think, babe?"

At week fourteen she had finally become too big for her clothes and so being, Daniel found himself in the middle of a bustling maternity store, unwillingly being used as a clothing rack.

He tried to keep his irritation under control and gritted his teeth. After all, they had been in the store for over two hours and she had only decided on one camisole and a belly band.

"I don't know. How about the blue ones?"

She stared at them a beat longer. "Hmmmm... No, I actually like the black ones. No, actually the blue ones. No. I don't know. Let's get both."

He rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. "Whatever you want dear."

She giggled and leant up to kiss him on the cheek. "I know. Now let's go find a pair of shorts."

 _"_ Oh _God."_

 _••••••••••_

"Huh, that's strange." Dr. Karen, their ob-gyn murmured moving the transducer wand in an upwards motion and frowning. "The sonogram is picking up more than one fetus but I'm not entirely sure."

Daniel's eyes widened and his heart seemed to stop. He looked at Resse who looked at him in complete and utter shock as her hand tightened around his.

"Just let me go grab Tina. She's a sonogram technician and she'll be able to tell for sure. Sit tight." The doctor patted Reese's arm, brown eyes crinkling when she smiled, and left.

She looked at him and rubbed her thumb across his knuckles and kissed them. "Oh, my God. I don't even know what to say."

"Neither do I." He brushed her hair back and placed a kiss on her forehead, honestly at a loss for words. He supposed it hadn't hit either of them.

"What if it's really twins?"

"I don't know."

All too soon a young blonde entered the room, introducing herself as Dr. Sydorak and picked up where the other doctor had left off. She moved the wand around until she found the uterus and paused, clicking a button on the machine that caused the screen to pause and a light blue box to surround it.

"Okay so that's the uterus," she pointed at the bean shaped circle to which Reese nodded impatiently, crushing his hand.

He honestly wanted to know what they were having too and quickly.

"And you're definitely having twins," she smiled and moved the transducer again, circling around two small blue masses. "That's baby number one and this is baby number two."

His wife gasped loudly and began laughing almost incredulously, craning her neck to see the screen. He couldn't believe it himself and looked towards the monitor on the wall, amazed and absolutely petrified. He couldn't control the sort of excited noise that he made and the smile on his face. "Oh, my God! We're having twins. Did you hear that? Oh, my God... No way. We're supposed to be in here for our fifteen week check-up and we're leaving with twins. Oh, my- my god."

"Yeah," he'd said in wonder, realizing it hadn't fully hit him yet. He grinned, truly and fully, and squeezed her hand.

She was still wide-eyed," Oh, my God. Do they both have heartbeats?"

The doctor chuckled. "Yes, they're both alive."

"Oh, my God. Daniel... This is- I can't even... Oh, my God!" Then she began laughing and crying and asking why they hadn't known up until this point.

"Well as you can sort of tell, one of the fetuses is behind the other, so at a smaller size it was hard to detect as with all similar cases. As a fetus grows it shifts so possibly a bit after your last ultrasound baby two moved. They are going to share the same placenta but they'll be separated by a membrane that's called an amniotic sac which is best."

He was still in shock but gathered the wherewithal to ask, "Why is that?"

"Well, it leaves the babies at risk when they share both the placenta and the sac. Umbilical cords can be implanted anywhere as there is no set way or predictability so one baby could get more sustenance than the other. That would mean the less dominant baby could grow and develop at a completely different rate even though they are genetically identical. There are also risks for complications such as one twin being absorbed into its sibling and becoming parasitic. Or one twin donating its nourishment to the dependent twin and causing its own self organ failure or developmental setbacks due to lack of blood flow. It's all a roll of the dice."

"Should we expect a complicated pregnancy?"

"Well Mrs. Roth, I wouldn't be able to say. Again, it's all up to chance."

Daniel had never been religious but he found himself internally calling out to whatever god may have been listening, praying for a safe pregnancy and delivery.

* * *

 _Third Trimester_

The news had shaken up them and their plans. Reese had insisted that she wanted a natural home birth, mostly due to her maternal instincts and Daniel had agreed. He wanted to give her the peaceful, intimate experience she'd always gushed about just before her twenty-week ultrasound when they found out about the twins. They were first-time parents in an age of information overload and technicalities and they had no idea what to do, feeling just as clueless as the first day. She didn't expect perfection and neither did he; life wasn't going to go by plan and they were okay with that.

All their research about twin births had resulted in reading about caesarean-sections and numerous complications, moving Reese further and further away from her intuition. The voice inside of all mothers, telling them what's best for their children and themselves. Finally one night as she'd read yet another article on how she probably wouldn't carry to full-term, she put her foot down and told him that she was giving birth at home. The thought terrified him but he trusted in her, knowing that she knew what was best for her and for their babies and he respected that. That voice of love had spoken to both of them, drowning out the nay-sayers and statistical data.

Their midwife Latrice in her professional opinion told them she expected Reese to go to full term and counseled the couple nutritionally to ensure it. One-hundred thirty good rams of protein a day was hard work but she always managed to pull through despite her petite frame. The pregnancy had reaped havoc on her body and left her in pain and discomfort most days but she told him that she wanted to let the twins grow as much as possible regardless of the hardships. He couldn't possibly adore her more for the sacrifices and selflessness she exhibited every day.

Latrice had also insisted upon sending her to a perinatologist for regular detailed ultrasounds and had already warned them that she wouldn't be birthing if Reese didn't make it past 40 weeks. Even the ob-gyn was skeptical of their decision to have a twin birth at home though she was usually supportive of such in low-risk mothers. They had been made to feel silly for their plans, especially outside of a hospital where there was no emergency medical staff and equipment should something go wrong. Dr. Karen had made it patronizingly clear when she told them bluntly that most of her patients hadn't made it past thirty-two and a half weeks.

Daniel hadn't been sorry to let her see his ugly side as his wife burst into tears. Things had been stressful enough.

••••••••••

"Surprise, Reese!" A chorus of voices rang out followed by cheers and applause.

He gave a soft smile as she looked around their living room at the balloons, banners and streamers, crying her happy tears. Everyone had come; after all, it was the first pregnancy in the Titans. Even the Justice League had shown up bearing gifts and congratulating the 28-week pregnant changeling.

"Oh my G-god. Thank you so much, guys."

Her family- Starfire, Cyborg, Robyn- gently hugged her.

"You are most welcome sister Reese."

"You deserve it."

"You already know Aunt Cyborg got ya covered."

Daniel kissed her nose, grabbing her hand. "No thank _you._ For being the best wife, mother, and friend we've ever had."

She began to cry even harder and everyone including herself began to laugh as Cyborg yelled," Oh, Lord. Speedy, go get some tissue."

The couple had decided early in the pregnancy not to know the gender of the baby, now babies, so everyone was merciful enough to stick with unisex colors- oranges, yellows, greens and browns. Many laughs and memories were had as they played all the baby shower games Starfire had found on Google, with the baby food game being the most popular. Daniel still had no idea how Cyborg had managed to get the peas and carrots up Batman's nose.

* * *

 _Welcome_

They came at forty weeks and two days, just three days short of her due date. Reese's uterine lining had been thinning out in the last weeks of the pregnancy and their midwife was fearful of it losing the ability to contract properly. So they had made a backup plan in case anything went wrong, but he knew she wouldn't need it.

She woke up at 3:25 a.m. feeling more than a little crampy. There was no broken water or panic like they portray in the movies. She had rolled over and woke him, calmly telling him to call Latrice. She and the other midwives came right over and he thanked the god that had listened to his plea because he was a little scared and she was killing his hand. She, the one in labor, had calmed him down, murmuring that they were going to be fine.

"I'm not worried. I feel it in my gut that my babies -our babies- will be fine."

In no time after the team had arrived, she told them that it felt better to bear down with the contractions, after which she started turning burgundy and screamed with each push. He hovered over her, remembering the techniques from birthing class, wiping her face and doing anything to be helpful.

Latrice looked at him with kind brown eyes, announcing that the baby was on its way as the other two midwives began to tell his wife to push with an air of urgency. She started to sound like a wounded animal and all he could do was brush her hair away from her face to keep himself calm. He was overwhelmed and way more than a little scared now, but he talked to her, wiping her brow, telling her things like 'you're doing great' and trying to avoid what lay just beyond her stomach.

She had settled back into the pillows and into the burning, stretching sensation of the baby coming down while he gripped her leg.

Then, at 5:19 a.m. -after only an hour and fifty-six minutes- out it came squalling and covered in God-knows-what, weighing in at six pounds and seven ounces. Latrice turned it towards him and it looked at him with the hugest, most startled eyes he'd ever seen. Their eyes locked and he thought to himself, _I know you._ Reese herself began to laugh and cry, clutching the baby to herself and whispering her welcomes to it over and over. Then she had looked over at him with wide eyes full of joy and shock.

In that instant when it was swaddled in a towel and laid on Reese's chest, the pain and the stress had been cleared from the room, replaced with an inaccurately stitched memory that could be looked back upon with fondness in the years to come. It was indeed a miracle.

Reese was beaming and he rested his face against hers, looking in the baby's eyes.

That's when the other baby joined the world, not to be forgotten, and just as cherished and precious.

Neither of them said a word for a long time, too stunned to check for genders. Anna, another midwife, informed them that they were girls.

••••••••••

He looked over at his babies, freshly bathed and babbling at their mother, who was bouncing them on her knees and playing with them. Emma Arella and Grey Mystique. They'd taken after him with fair skin and dark hair, getting their green eyes and dimples from his wife. She looked up to flash a grin at him and turned back to the twins who giggled as she tickled them.

It was the moments like this that made him happy and appreciate the gifts of life and love. He wanted to enjoy the times before they grew up and flew the nest or even worse... hit puberty.

* * *

 ** _Thank you again MistEssence and everyone who views/reviews/favs/follows me and/or my stories. You guys are truly my rock._**


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